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· Spike TV outbids USA, SciFi Channel, TBS, and TNT to get a six-year exclusive deal for all six Star Wars movies, paying a reported $65 to 70 million, a great opportunity for the network to show off how well the disappointment of the three latest films holds up on the small screen. [Variety]
· The Viacom split has been sped up, and will now be completed by year's end. There's nothing that soon-to-be CBS Corp CEO Les Moonves likes better than an accelerated divorce. [THR]
· NBC signs up Meet the Parents/Fockers writer Jim Herzfeld for a sitcom pilot based on his experiences working at an LA country club. "I tell the stories at cocktail parties, and people laugh," said Herzfeld, perhaps inadvertently revealing that NBC head Kevin Reilly made the deal while drunk and munching on crab cakes. [Variety]
· The WB "benches" Friday comedies Blue Collar TV and Living with Fran. It always makes us a little sad when the first time we hear of a show (who knew Fran Drescher was back?) is when reading a story about its impending cancellation. [THR]
· Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer Films pay $1.5 million for the rights to as-yet-unpublished Ahmet "No, Not Dweezil, The Other One" Zappa novel Monstrous Memoirs of a Mighty McFearless, about "a young brother and sister who learn their family is part of a long line of monster hunters... [and who] must band together against the most diabolical creature in the universe." Didn't take long for the Disney folks to take a thinly veiled shot at Michael Eisner, did it? [Variety]